It is common in the packaging and shipping industry to utilize banding straps of various forms as a package tie, either directly around the plurality of the articles to be shipped to securely retain them as a unit, or around the container in which the articles are placed. For example, in the packaging and shipping of heavy bulk packages, such as a coil of cold rolled steel, large crates or cartons as commonly used in industrial and commercial packaging, steel band straps are commonly employed which are wrapped about the stack of the articles, or about the package in which the articles are placed, utilizing a special banding tool adapted to tension the band during the wrapping process so that the same tightly encircles the shipment. The ends of the band strap are then permanently interconnected using various type of permanent fasting devices. Such banding straps are provided in various widths and thicknesses, depending upon the weight, size and type of packaging application and provide a very reliable means of securing the articles and/or package containing the same against breakage, rupture, pilferage and rough handling.
Because the tensioned bands are secured at their ends by various types of non-releasable permanent fastening implements, in order to open the band-wrapped bulk package to provide access to the packaged articles, it is necessary to sever each continuous encircling loop of the banding to thereby destructively remove it from the package, the severed the band then being discarded as scrap. Inasmuch as steel banding for heavy packages typically constitutes strip stock ranging in width from one-half inch to one and one-half inches and in thickness from 0.035 inches to 0.050 inches, special hand operated cutting tools have customarily been provided for the purpose of cutting the banding strips to unpackage the load. Typically these hand tools constitute an industrial type, and grade of scissors which embody force multiplication mechanisms to handle the heavy duty cutting involved. Such band cutting hand tools are relatively expensive and in many cases awkward to operate in particular packaging locations and band orientations where access is difficult. Moreover, because of their scissors-cutting action, such conventional tools require the cutting edges to be made sharp and so maintained in use, thereby necessitating resharpening or replacement at relatively frequent intervals, and also that safety precautions be observed by the user.